scholarly journals Groundwater Development for Dry Season Irrigation in North East Ghana: The Place of Local Knowledge

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Kwoyiga ◽  
Catalin Stefan
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Alternative Water

The use of groundwater resources for dry season irrigation has gained currency in Ghana. The north-east of the country has seen the cultivation of vegetables using groundwater from shallow aquifers; an emerging livelihood activity which lessens food insecurity and stems the tide of rural–urban migration. This practice in northern Ghana is deeply rooted in local knowledge. Using the Atankwidi catchment, this paper examines the role of local knowledge in understanding and exploiting groundwater for irrigation. A qualitative approach was used which allowed for in-depth catchment-level investigations, using group discussions, key informant interviews and informal discussions with irrigators, traditional leaders, earth priests, men, and women. Evidence from analysis revealed that local knowledge enabled farmers to locate groundwater points and determine the source and timing of groundwater recharge. Traditional communities are also able to identify the period for constructing wells. In addition, local knowledge enabled farmers to adopt strategies of conjunctively using groundwater with alternative water to cope with insufficient groundwater resources. We argue that local knowledge serves as a useful tool in sustaining dry season irrigation despite the challenges of a lack of government support and threats of global change.

Population Geography and Settlement Studies

1989 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 251-258
Author(s):  
R. I. Lawless
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Interregional Migration ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Rural To Urban Migration ◽  
Settlement Studies

Oil wealth has transformed Libya, a desertic and sparsely populated country, bringing dramatic demographic changes (Zoghlami 1979). El Mehdawi and Clarke (1982) and Lawless and Kezeiri (1983) describe and analyse the growing polarisation of the population in the north-west and north-east coastal regions which contain the two largest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi. They show that in recent years spatial duality has been sharply intensified by strong rural to urban migration and also by an increase in interregional migration. The concentration of new development programmes in certain urban centres has been the main cause of the development differential among the regions. As a result the regions which include the most important urban centres have become the most prosperous and the others have become less developed or even depressed. This has been the main cause of the rapid increase in both rural to urban migration and interregional migration. The inhabitants of the less developed regions have continued to move in increasing numbers to those which are more developed. The large majority of migrants who moved from these less developed regions are represented by rural people who have changed their place of residence and their occupation. They have left their work in the rural sector to seek employment in the industrial and service sector. As a result agricultural production has declined. The agrarian sector now employs less than a quarter of the Libyan workforce and the percentage of nomads and semi-nomads has declined to under 10% of the population. Albergani and Vignet-Zunz (1982) have shown that colonial invasion and occupation followed by the Second World War threatened the Bedouin of the Jebel Akhdar with extinction, not through sedentarisation but through the mass migration of a devastated rural population. The advent of oil and the high salary levels available in urban centres further encouraged this tendency. Gannous (1979) studied the movement of Bedouin from rural areas to the town of Al Abiyar and the erosion of Bedouin culture by urban values.

scholarly journals A scabies outbreak in the North East Region of Ghana: The necessity for prompt intervention

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. e0008902
Author(s):  
Yaw Ampem Amoako ◽  
Richard Odame Phillips ◽  
Joshua Arthur ◽  
Mark Ayaaba Abugri ◽  
Emmanuel Akowuah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
The Body ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Individual Treatment ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Resource Limited ◽  
International Alliance

Background There is a dearth of data on scabies from Ghana. In September 2019, local health authorities in the East Mamprusi district of northern Ghana received reports of scabies from many parts of the district. Due to on-going reports of more cases, an assessment team visited the communities to assess the effect of the earlier individual treatment on the outbreak. The assessment team furthermore aimed to contribute to the data on scabies burden in Ghana and to demonstrate the use of the International Alliance for the Control of Scabies (IACS) diagnostic tool in a field survey in a resource limited setting. Methodology/Principal findings This was a cross sectional study. Demographic information and medical history was collected on all participants using a REDCap questionnaire. A standardised skin examination of exposed regions of the body was performed on all participants. Scabies was diagnosed based on the criteria of the International Alliance for the Control of Scabies (IACS). Participants were mostly female (61.5%) and had a median age of 18.8 years (IQR 13–25). Two hundred out of 283 (71%) of participants had scabies with most (47%) presenting with moderate disease. Impetigo was found in 22% of participants with scabies and 10.8% of those without scabies [RR 2.27 (95% CI 1.21–4.27)]. 119 participants who received scabies treatment in the past months still had clinical evidence of the disease. 97% of participants reported a recent scabies contact. Scabies was commoner in participants ≤16 years compared to those >16 years [RR 3.06 (95% CI 1.73–5.45)]. Conclusion/Significance The prevalence of scabies was extremely high. The lack of a systematic approach to scabies treatment led to recurrence and ongoing community spread. The IACS criteria was useful in this outbreak assessment in Ghana. Alternative strategies such as Mass drug administration may be required to contain outbreaks early in such settings.

The Karamoja District of Uganda

1962 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Rift Valley ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Elephant Grass ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Eastern Boundary ◽  
Constitutional Changes

Uganda is a green and fertile country; a land of dense forests, banana gardens, and elephant grass; but there is, in the north-east corner, bordering Kenya and the Sudan, a district which for many months of the year is brown and dry. This is Karamoja. Karamoja forms a barrier between the abundance of Uganda and the sparseness of the desert and semidesert, which sweep from the Horn of Africa, across the north of Kenya, to the escarpment of the Rift Valley, which is the eastern boundary of Karamoja itself. The District, which is one and a half times the size of Wales but with a population of only 172,000, consists of wide, thorn scrub covered plains broken by large volcanic mountain masses. Across the plains the tribes of Karamoja, the Dodoth, the Jie, the Karamojong, and the Suk, herd their cattle. Cattle are the basis of their life and their culture. It is for their cattle that during the dry season they wander over the great plains in search of water and grass. It is for their cattle, to defend their pasture, and to increase the herds, that the tribes fight and steal from each other. Like many of Africa's cattle tribes they have not taken to westernization. They present for Uganda the problem, common to many African states, of a proud pastoral people who do not fit into the new Africa of nationalism, constitutional changes and subtle voting arrangements.

scholarly journals Assessment of groundwater quality using geographical information system (GIS), at north-east Cairo, Egypt

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-339
Author(s):  
M. F. El-Shahat ◽  
M. A. Sadek ◽  
W. M. Mostafa ◽  
K. H. Hagagg
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Groundwater Quality ◽  
Geographical Information System ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Quaternary Aquifer ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Groundwater Samples ◽  
Almost All

The present investigation has been conducted to delineate the hydrogeochemical and environmental factors that control the water quality of the groundwater resources in the north-east of Cairo. A complementary approach based on hydrogeochemistry and a geographical information system (GIS) based protectability index has been employed for conducting this work. The results from the chemical analysis revealed that the groundwater of the Quaternary aquifer is less saline than that of the Miocene aquifer and the main factors that control the groundwater salinity in the studied area are primarily related to the genesis of the original recharging water modified after by leaching, dissolution, cation exchange, and fertilizer leachate. The computed groundwater quality index (WQI) falls into two categories: fair for almost all the Miocene groundwater samples, while the Quaternary groundwater samples are all have a good quality. The retarded flow and non-replenishment of the Miocene aquifer compared to the renewable active recharge of the Quaternary aquifer can explain this variation of WQI. The index and overlay approach exemplified by the DUPIT index has been used to investigate the protectability of the study aquifers against diffuse pollutants. Three categories (highly protectable less vulnerable, moderately protectable moderately vulnerable and less protectable highly vulnerable) have been determined and areally mapped.

scholarly journals Securing Access to Drinking Water in North-Eastern Morocco: The Example of the Taourirt-Oujda Corridor

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 928
Author(s):  
Halima Jounaid ◽  
Taha Attou ◽  
Toufik Remmal ◽  
Aimad Bouaziz
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Drinking Water Supply ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Eastern Morocco

Taourit-Oujda corridor (T.O.C.) is a geological entity of north-eastern Morocco with a total area of 4000 Km2. The drinking water supply in this arid region still faces challenges that meet a growing demand for a shortage of fresh water. This shortage is mainly due to the scarcity and irregularity of the precipitations, the overexploitation of the water resources, and the decrease of the capacity of storage dams that are the main source of drinking water supply in this area. This work aims at estimating deficit (to 2040) for drinking water provided by Machraa Hammadi dam and proposing favourable drilling sites to strengthen drinking water supply through the identification of groundwater resources that can be used in quantity and quality. To do this, a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) covering geological, hydrogeological and hydro-chemical aspects using the Geographical Information System (GIS) was carried out. This study shows that T.O.C. aquifer is more productive in the south-west of it, in the centre near the El Aioun municipality and in the north-east at the town of Sidi Bouhouria. According to Moroccan standards, defining the quality norms of surface waters, waters destined for irrigation, and of surface waters used for the production of drinking water, the groundwater in the center and north-east areas is also with good to medium overall quality groundwater.

Activity Cycles ofGlossina pallidipesAust.,G. palpalis fuscipesNewst. andG. brevipalpisNewst

1965 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. B. Harley
Keyword(s):  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Glossina Pallidipes ◽  
Physical Factor ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Morning Peak ◽  
Hot Dry Season

A series of 24-hr catches ofGlossina pallidipesAust.,G. palpalis fuscipesNewst. andG. brevipalpisNewst. was carried out on the north-east shore of Lake Victoria over a period of 11 months in 1962–63. The object was to define and compare the daily pattern of activity of the three species as indicated by the numbers caught hourly on three black cattle that were used as bait. Catching during the hours of darkness was done by the light of dimmed hurricane lamps. The period of observation covered successively a dry season, a wet season, a cool dry season and a hot dry season.At all seasons, males ofG. pallidipeswere caught in gradually increasing numbers from just before dawn until shortly before sunset, after which a rapid decrease took place. Females ofG. pallidipesexhibited a different pattern, with a gradual rise in activity in the morning until about midday, after which activity remained more or less constant until shortly before sunset, when a rapid fall occurred. There was never any indication of a morning peak in activity such as has been described for this species elsewhere. Activity during the night was at an extremely low level.Activity of both males and females ofG. p. fuscipesstarted about dawn, increased to a peak in the middle hours of the day, and then fell fairly rapidly in the evening; the exact time of the peak was variable. None was caught during the night.There was some activity ofG. brevipalpisthroughout the diel, but marked peaks of activity were exhibited by both sexes. In the open, these took place immediately after sunset and immediately before sunrise, the latter being the smaller. In the shade, the morning peak in both sexes was an hour later than in the open, and the evening peak in males alone was an hour earlier.These results are compared with those of other workers, and the influence of physical factors is discussed. Particular values of temperature and saturation deficit were not closely associated with particular levels of activity of any of the three species, and light intensity is probably the physical factor that is most consistently the same at times of particular levels of activity at all seasons.

scholarly journals Institutional Feasibility of Managed Aquifer Recharge in Northeast Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Kwoyiga ◽  
Catalin Stefan
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Managed Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Irrigation Engineering

As part of global efforts to address the challenges that are confronting groundwater for various purposes (including irrigation), engineering methods such as Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) have been adopted. This wave of MAR has engulfed some parts of Northern Ghana, characterized by insufficient groundwater for dry-season irrigation. Inspired by the strides of these schemes, the paper assesses the institutional feasibility of MAR methods in the Atankwidi catchment where dry-season farmers may lose their source of livelihood due to limited access to groundwater. We used both primary and secondary data, together with policy documents, to address the following questions: (i) What provisions and impacts formal government institutions had for MAR, and; (ii) what catchment-level institutions exist which may influence MAR. The results show that formal government institutions do not prohibit the adoption of MAR in the country. Among these institutions, it is realized that laws/legislative instruments provide sufficient information and support for MAR than policies and administrative agencies. Moreover, catchment-level institutions which are informal in the form of taboos, rules, norms, traditions, and practices, together with local knowledge play a significant role as far as groundwater issues in the catchment are concerned, and are important for the adoption of MAR methods.

scholarly journals Irrawaddy dolphin Orcaella brevirostris in the Cambodian Mekong River: an initial survey

Oryx ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian G. Baird ◽  
Isabel L. Beasley
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Mekong River ◽  
Mekong River Basin ◽  
North East ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dolphin Population ◽  
Initial Survey

Irrawaddy dolphins Orcaella brevirostiris are found in coastal waters from the Bay of Bengal east to Palawan, Philippines and south to northern Australia. They also occur in three large tropical river systems in South-east Asia: the Mekong, Mahakam and Ayeyarwady. In March and May 1997 approximately 350 km of riverine habitat in parts of north-east Cambodia were surveyed, discussions took place with local people, and reported dry season dolphin habitat was mapped. Our objectives were to investigate the status, habitat and distribution of dolphins in north-east Cambodia and identify threats to the continued survival of dolphins in the Mekong River Basin. Nine groups of dolphins were observed in the Mekong River. A ‘best’ estimate of 40 animals were seen. Irrawaddy dolphins were generally confined to sections of the river with water levels >8–10 m during the dry season. It appears that the Mekong River dolphin population is rapidly declining. In 1997 there were probably no more than 100¨C150 dolphins left in north-east Cambodia (including southern Laos) and no more than 200 within the entire Mekong River Basin, although these numbers remain tentative. Anthropogenic mortality is high, albeit largely unintentional, and there is considerable risk that the dolphin population will become locally extinct in the Mekong River in the near future. The establishment of community-managed deep water Fish Conservation Zones with government support may represent the best opportunity for reducing dry season dolphin mortality from large-meshed gillnet entanglement. Efforts to establish protected areas for dolphins are currently underway.

scholarly journals Alleviating the Material and Health Challenges of Young Internally Displaced People in North-East Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p10
Author(s):  
Ali Johnson Onoja ◽  
Chris Olusola Ogedengbe ◽  
Felix Olaniyi Sanni ◽  
Paul Olaiya Abiodun ◽  
Monday Okeme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Proper Training ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Displaced People

The increasing rate of attack in the North-Eastern parts of Nigeria has caused the deaths of thousands and thereby forcing many of the residents, including children to abandon their comforts zones. This study assessed the material and health challenges of young IDPs and the impacts of sexual and reproductive health programs in improving the conditions of these young ones. The study was conducted in sixteen local governments of three states (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe) in the North-East of Nigeria using mixed methods. The quantitative data were obtained by the administration of a structured questionnaire to the young IDPs in the three states. The quantitative data were analysed and were complemented by the qualitative data {Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)} that were obtained from the young IDPs. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20. The majority (78.5%) of the young internally displace persons (IDPs) were within the age group of 10-14 years with 51.8% males and 59.1% have attained primary. The major material challenges facing the young IDPs include lack of food (31.6%), clothing (28.7%), Soap/cream (19.8%) and medicine (13.1%). The most common health problems include Malaria (28.9%), cough 23.1%, diarrhoea (18.3%) and cholera (13.1%). The IDPs confirmed that they were fully protected in the camp with no experience of rape. They affirmed that their needs were met by the intervention programs provided for them; 71.7% affirmed that their situation was “Good” since they came to the camps and more than half (55.2%) confirmed a better situation. The training in the IPD camps was mostly artisan related while only 31.7% were schooling. This study found that young IDPs are being faced with material and health-related challenges as well as the lack of proper training and education. However, the outcome of the SRH project is a manifestation of the efficient utilization of the resources of the project. More intervention programs to alleviate the challenges of IDPs are advocated.

Climatic modelling of the Australian distribution of the grass owl (Tyto capensis): is there an inland population?

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 117 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Olsen ◽  
B. Doran
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Far North ◽  
Coastal Population ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Breeding Seasons ◽  
Dispersal Events ◽  
Made In

The Australian distribution of the grass owl (Tyto capensis) is poorly understood. It has been proposed that there are two centres of distribution: a resident coastal population in the north-east, and a less stable inland population from which there is Australia-wide dispersal when good seasons are followed by deteriorating conditions. We analysed records of the grass owl and modelled its bioclimatic profile and distribution, which was typically subtropical, warm to hot humid with no dry season or a dry winter. This predicted a north-east sub-coastal to coastal, permanently occupied, core distribution for the owl. We found no evidence for a permanent or isolated inland population, nor for inland populations being the sole source of dispersers, as has been suggested previously. Most inland and northern records were made in the 1970s when grass owls colonised the arid inland, the Kimberley and the far north of the country in association with events leading to the flooding of Lake Eyre. The data suggest that grass owls disperse from their core range after exceptionally good breeding seasons to areas made temporarily favourable by exceptional rainfall or flooding, only to disperse again when conditions become drier. These dispersal events are not tied uniquely to outbreaks of the long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus), but to a variety of terrestrial prey with dynamic life histories driven by rainfall.

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